Sara's Blog

“What an amazing idea. Easy to use and beginner friendly! I love it... This will be the highlight of any scrap party! Thank you so much!!!” —Carrie

Carrie’s just gotten her hands on the newest template, one I’m very excited for—called the Scrapbook Spinner. It’s designed so you can add hidden photos or journaling to your layouts…without having to figure out the engineering on your own. And as with all HOTP templates, it’s packed with lots of shapes so you have the option to do windows shaped like stars, hearts and more. I also love having the scalloped edge on the right side of the template….I have the feeling I’ll be using that a lot!

In other news around here, Ram went back home earlier this week and I’m really much sadder than I should be. I miss our morning walks (he won’t, though) and having someone around the house to talk to/at while I’m working.

(Okay, I don’t really miss the daily vacuuming or carrying little plastic bags around town. But still.)

“It’s not like you’ll never see him again, we’re going over to their place for dinner,” said Keith (a bit unsympathetically, I thought). And yes, I did spend a little time on the Dutch dog adoption website before remembering that my October travel schedule is going to be crazy: South Africa, Oregon and the UK, all in one month. So until things settle down, I’ll have to content myself to “borrowing” my friends’ dogs. (Hoping Ela goes on vacation again soon!)

PS. Don’t forget, the Stamp Camp Week of Webisodes starts October 5! If you want a daily email notice of that day’s topic, just click here!

This week I’ve been preparing for the classes I’ll teach at the Aquila X-travaganza in Johannesburg, South Africa at the end of October. If you leave nearby, contact Aquila to find out more about the event!

So while I was reviewing the projects for our Cardmaking with Dazzles class—which involves the Greetings Dazzles—I was trying to puzzle out the best way that students could position the words. Ages ago, when alphabet stickers (the really tiny ones, remember?) came out for scrapbooking, we all learned to attach the bottom of each letter to the edge of a ruler, then place the ruler onto the paper and press the tops of the letters to the paper. Then you sort of roll the edge of the ruler out from under the letters and the stickers are stuck to your paper. I tried it with the Dazzles greetings and it works!

(Ignore that big swoop of gold on my ruler—I was edging something with a gold metallic marker and it slipped.)

 
 

I’m seeing a lot of elephants in Amsterdam lately….these ones are perched outside the Westerkerk by my house, but they’re all over town. They’re life-sized models of baby elephants, painted/decorated by local and international artists to raise awareness about the plight of Asian elephants. It’s so cool to see these bright bursts of color around town just as the weather’s starting to turn gray.

This week I’m hanging out with Ram, my friend Ela’s dog, while she’s on vacation. I’m mad about dogs and Ram is proving to be an excellent co-worker, but an extremely lazy exercise buddy. Actually, last night he just sat on the sidewalk after about five minutes’ walk and refused to budge. Well, he is a pretty big dog and once he sits, he sits.

Funnily enough, for such a big dog, he’s really, really scared of 1) bicycles, 2) tall people, and 3) water. So Amsterdam is a bit of a challenge and we quickly ruled out pleasant strolls along the canals during rush hour…Amsterdam “rush hour” meaning hundreds of bicycles ridden by tall people. But each morning we walk past the neighborhood kindergarten, and he simply revels in the attention from the kids (maybe because they’re short?).

He loves our Dutch stairs, too, and makes several trips up and down each day for no apparent reason other than to, well, go up and down the stairs—with an awkward bunny-hop method. And his all-time favorite thing is to lounge on the patio and spy on the neighbors.

The trick? Ela found him on the street in Tel Aviv, and he only understands Hebrew. Since he’s come to stay, my Hebrew has expanded from “l’chaim!” to include terms like “sit”, “stay” and “good dog”. I’m not sure when/if these will come in handy again but you never know!

PS. Get ready….Stamp Camp Week of Webisodes will air October 5-9! For all you cardmakers out there, this WoW will be a special treat!

Congratulations to Kelly Griffin of Gladstone, Oregon! My co-worker Stan spotted her blue and red ribbons at the Clackamas County Fair in Canby and snapped these photos, and Kelly was generous enough to let me show her winning pages here. Kelly designs scrapbooks for customers through her business, Generations Memory Books in Gladstone.

Kelly says:
“Submitting scrapbook pages to the Clackamas County Fair was a lot of fun, and of course, I'm very excited about the ribbons!"

"I have used HOTP products since I started scrapbooking more than 10 years ago, and have always held your products and your designs in the highest regard…I consider HOTP the industry standard in value, consistency, creativity and design. I rarely produce any pages or cards that don't have some element of your product on them.”

Congrats again, Kelly and enjoy your ribbons!